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Karzai makes new demands before he will sign U.S.-Afghan pact

By Tim Craig and Karen DeYoungThe Washington Post

Posted:
11/26/2013 12:01:00 AM MST

KABUL — Efforts by the United States and Afghanistan to finalize a long-term security arrangement appeared on the brink of collapse Monday as Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a new set of demands, and the Obama administration said it would be forced to begin planning for a complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces at the end of 2014.

In a two-hour meeting here, Susan Rice, President Barack Obama's top national security adviser, told Karzai that if he failed to sign the bilateral security agreement by the end of this year, the United States would have "no choice" but withdrawal, according to a statement by the National Security Council in Washington.

Karzai told Rice that he would sign only after the United States helps his government begin peace talks with the Taliban and agrees to release all 17 Afghan citizens in the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, according to Afghan and U.S. officials.

In addition to those new demands, the Afghan leader reiterated that he will not sign if "another (U.S.) soldier steps foot into an Afghan home," Karzai spokesman Aimal Faizi said.

The United States already has promised to show "restraint" in so-called "home entries" by U.S. troops and to carry them out only in conjunction with Afghan troops, but the tactic remains a principal part of U.S. operations against insurgents.

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If Rice's unannounced visit to Afghanistan, her first solo trip abroad in office, was designed to convince Karzai that the Obama administration was not bluffing about a complete withdrawal, it did not appear to work.

Instead, Karzai doubled down on the position he staked out Thursday, when he shocked U.S. officials and an assembly of tribal elders and regional leaders called to approve the deal by saying that he would not sign it until his growing list of demands was met.

The agreement, completed last week after year-long negotiations, outlines the conditions for U.S. troops to remain to train and advise the Afghan military, and conduct counter-terrorism operations after the Americans and their NATO partners withdraw all combat troops by the end of next year.

The administration has said the agreement must be signed before the end of this year if planning for post-2014 deployments are to be completed.

On Sunday, Karzai repeated his refusal to sign. U.S. officials have said they believe Karzai is bluffing.

"The president said, 'Madame Rice, the ball is in your court,'" Faizi said. "The president said, 'If you are under the impression the (agreement) will be signed without a peace process and without a total ban on raids of Afghan homes, this is a serious miscalculation.' "

Although written in far more diplomatic language, the NSC statement was equally tough, saying that Rice "stressed that we have concluded negotiations and that deferring the signature of the agreement until after next year's elections is not viable" and that she "reiterated that, without a prompt signature, the U.S. would have no choice but to initial planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no U.S. or NATO troop presence in Afghanistan."

Failure to sign, Rice told Karzai, also would jeopardize the $4 billion of international pledges to fund the Afghan military after 2014 and additional $4 billion that has been pledged for Afghan economic development.

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